The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents

Attitudes toward languages of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents have not yet become a focus of research. Despite rapid growth in the number of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents across the globe, surprisingly few studies have been devoted to this significant phenomenon. Bi-...

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Main Author:	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2018
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/1/19422-69264-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-13585
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-135852019-10-26T22:45:16Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/ The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu Attitudes toward languages of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents have not yet become a focus of research. Despite rapid growth in the number of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents across the globe, surprisingly few studies have been devoted to this significant phenomenon. Bi- and multilingualism is a major consequence of immigration and cross-cultural marriages. Regardless of whether cross-cultural marriage is involved, the immigration of families has considerable linguistic consequences on children and adolescents. This paper draws on five case studies in examining the complex factors determining the attitudinal patterns evinced by bi- and multilingual children and adolescents from immigrant families in Thailand. Five households agreed to participate in this research endeavor and data were also collected from surveys, interviews, observations and field notes acquired through the employment of ethnographic investigative methods. The data collected were analyzed through constant comparative method and content analysis. Findings showed consistent patterns for those bi- and multilingual children and adolescents whose Thaispeaking mother was linguistically dominant in a family with an immigrant father speaking a minority language. The results showed that these children were more likely to perceive Thai as more highly regarded language. By contrast, it was also found that Thai was not as highly regarded by the children of parents if both were minority-language speaking immigrants. It was concluded that the family structure of immigrant families is associated with the language attitudes of their children. By the same token, the type of marriage of immigrant families has long-reaching effects on the development of children and adolescents’ language attitudes. Moreover, data showed that a non-migrant mother’s dominant language played a more influential role in contrast to the minimal role-played by the migrant father’s minority language in the development of children and adolescents’ language attitudes. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2018-02 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/1/19422-69264-1-PB.pdf Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu (2018) The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 18 (1). pp. 122-139. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1073
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Attitudes toward languages of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents have not yet become a focus of research. Despite rapid growth in the number of bi- and multilingual children and adolescents across the globe, surprisingly few studies have been devoted to this significant phenomenon. Bi- and multilingualism is a major consequence of immigration and cross-cultural marriages. Regardless of whether cross-cultural marriage is involved, the immigration of families has considerable linguistic consequences on children and adolescents. This paper draws on five case studies in examining the complex factors determining the attitudinal patterns evinced by bi- and multilingual children and adolescents from immigrant families in Thailand. Five households agreed to participate in this research endeavor and data were also collected from surveys, interviews, observations and field notes acquired through the employment of ethnographic investigative methods. The data collected were analyzed through constant comparative method and content analysis. Findings showed consistent patterns for those bi- and multilingual children and adolescents whose Thaispeaking mother was linguistically dominant in a family with an immigrant father speaking a minority language. The results showed that these children were more likely to perceive Thai as more highly regarded language. By contrast, it was also found that Thai was not as highly regarded by the children of parents if both were minority-language speaking immigrants. It was concluded that the family structure of immigrant families is associated with the language attitudes of their children. By the same token, the type of marriage of immigrant families has long-reaching effects on the development of children and adolescents’ language attitudes. Moreover, data showed that a non-migrant mother’s dominant language played a more influential role in contrast to the minimal role-played by the migrant father’s minority language in the development of children and adolescents’ language attitudes.
format	Article
author	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
spellingShingle	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents
author_facet	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
author_sort	Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu
title	The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents
title_short	The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents
title_full	The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents
title_fullStr	The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents
title_full_unstemmed	The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents
title_sort	effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents
publisher	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2018
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13585/1/19422-69264-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:05:11Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:05:11Z
_version_	1777407110902972416

The effect of multicultural family structures on the language attitudes of children and adolescents

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